Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885, December 01, 1884, Page 4, Image 4

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    THE HESPERIAN STUDENT.
1 1
regulating dress in this democratic land of ours and a
hat, whether it be the plug of the professional man,
the cap of the German laborer or even, yes even, the
Oxford hat of the students, has the right to appear on
the streets without all the hullabullo which is being
raised against it. We do not wear them to render
ourselves obnoxious or over-conspicuous, but merely
as an outward sign of membership of one common
University. Please let us, Mr. Editors.
he gtutlmte' grvf ooht
MAKE THE BEST OF IT.
What's tho use of always fretting
Over llli that can't bo cured f
What's tho U60 of (hiding fault with
What wo know must bo endured?
Docs It make our burdens lighter
If wo grumble 'ueath their load?
Docs It make life's pathway smoother
If we frot about the road?
Better ueo our tlmo than (111 It
Full of bIrIib and vain regrets
Over eoino Imagined blunder
As docs he who ulways frets.
Wo cannot expect life's pathway
To be alums Htrewn with flowers,
Nor tho time that God has given
To be all made of hnppy bourn.
Storms will follow every sunshine,
Grief bo mixed with every Joy:
And 'tis best tliat It should be so
Gold's to soft without alloy,
"Half our trouble' our Invention j"
Wo'er to blumo for half our strife;
Then, If Ufa Is what we make It,
Why not make tho best of life?
SelecUd.
'TIh a good thing Komotlmos to ho nlonu,
Sit calmly down mid look self In the faco,
Kausuck the heart, vcurch every eecrot place;
Prayerfully uproot the baneliil tcods theto
sown.
Pluck out the wood ere the full crop Is grown,
Gird up tho lolus nfresh to run the race,
Foster all noble thoughts, cast out the base,
Thrust forth tho bad and make the good thine
own.
Who has this courage thus to look within I
Koep faithful wiilch mid ward with lunur eyes,
Tho foo may harass, but can ne'er surprise
Or over him Ignoble conquest win,
01 doubt It not, If thou would! wear a crown,
Pelf, baser self, must llrst be trampled down,
John Aikhum,
QARLYLE.
Tho appcaranco of Curlylo linn marked it now era In lit.
ernturc, un era the Influence) of which has permeated ami
loavoncd tho thought of Hie century. For not us a moro lit
erary artist, is consummnto muster of stylo, does ho appear
to us, but claims our attention on account of tho weight of
hia message. To illustrate, lie docs not attach so much im.
portaucu to tho vehicle of his thought, tho mode of express
ion but intent on tho importance of 'tis errand siezes tho
llrst conveyance that chances along. Viewed puroly on
tho aesthetic sido, ho has many faults, but to us whom tho
message alono concerns it makes little difference. And
hero tiic question might bo raised, is litcr&luro to be
criticized entirely on the ground of artistic culture, on a
quality which tho masses kuow or euro nothing about, or
according to tho momentum it carries, what it moves or
impels in us? Is it something to be hung upon our walls
to challcugo admiration, or to be brought into tho daily
lifo, as a source of inspiration, as an inspiration to call us
upward to a higher and brorder plaino? For what is lit.
craturo but an cxpressson of tho thoughts and fcolings
(hut arc in the minds and hearts of us all, only elaborated
and finished by a moro skilful touch. Addison is r o
garded as a model of style, but who to-day cares to spend
time upon his nerveless, unvuried pages, what influenco
docs he wield now? Tho world is outgrowing its lovo of
show, and is beginning to put to all things this question
what do llioy teiii-.li ?
It is on Hits ground that wo shall attempt to criticize,
Curly Ho has now boon beforo tho public long enough
to make us familiar with his mode of thought. Whatever
sensation was created at ills first advent has now died
away, and wc seo him as ho wa&. Tho blaze of criticism
lias been turned upon him, a light terrible to those in
false positions, but adding new luslro to the justly de
serving. Curly lo appears before us in threo departments of lots
lets, as historian biographer and critic but it is in tho last
two that wo seo him at ills best. Ho had too vivid an
imagination, too idealistic a temperament for tho recital of
cold facts In mechanical order. His flro bursts through
frequently in ills histories, and his paintings glow with
colors moro startling than real. As Mr. Lowell says,"hi8
French Revolution is a sorlos of lurid pictures, un
matched for vehement power, in which tho figures, of
such sous of earth as Mlrabeau and Diiiuon loom gigantic
uud terrible as in tno glare of a volcano, tholr shadows
swaying far and wide grotesquely nwft.1. Hut all is painted
volcanic flashes, in violent light and shade." This criti
cism undoubtly has much Irtilh in tl. Hut before pro
ceeding farther lot us notice a low of tho general charac
teristics of Oarlyle. Tho I urn of his mind Is distinctively
toward ethical philosophy, other tilings are subordinated
to Hits. Ho Is an ardent worshipper of Irulh. Site is his
supremo goddeHi, Whatever is must have a moaning to
him, ho is not satisfied with appearances, but plcrcos to
tho reality. Ho would know to what end all things tend.
Thus ho appears as a philosopher of transcendentalism.
Fixing his gazo on tho othloal Import t' events, ho looks
beyond tho conventional and narrow into the universal.
'For tho lesson of llfo," says Emerson, "Is practically to
generalize, to bollovo what tho yours and tho centuries
say against Hie hours, to resist tho usurpation of purlieu,
jars, to penetrate to tholr catholic sense." This is what
distinguishes between the groat and tho little man, tho
latter sees only special laws, the former general, tho one
reasons by arithmetical rules, tho other by algebraic
formulae. 1c Curly lo everything seems to havoadua
signification, an ethical or universal, as well as physical
and ephemeral, and it is tho former that ho socks. Tho
meaning that lio at tho hoart of things ho searches for as is
illustrated In his owu language. "I say this is yot tho
only truo morality known, a man is right and invincible
vlriuous uud on tho road toward sure conquest, precisely
mi